Anger over school funding scandal

Burton’s Conservative candidate for the next General election has hit out at the ‘scandal’ of school funding for pupils in Burton and Uttoxeter. 

The comments came after figures for central government funding of Staffordshire’s schools for the years 2008-2011 were released by the Government. They show that in 2008-09, Staffordshire will receive £3,776 guaranteed funding per pupil as against an average £4,007 for the West Midlands and £4,066 for England as a whole. By 2010-11, the gap between Staffordshire and the West Midlands will have increased from the current £233 per pupil (2007-8) to £253 per pupil. 

Marchington resident Andrew Griffiths said:

“Yet a gain, children in Burton and Uttoxeter are losing out because of the unfairness of the current system.  I am pleased that funding has increased slightly, but our pupils are still being victimised compared to children in the rest of the West Midlands and across the country.” 

"In the House of Commons yesterday, the Schools Secretary Ed Balls said that Staffordshire would have an increase of 0.3% more than the average for England over the next 3 years. That narrows the gap by a miserly 0.1% per year. If the Labour Government continued to increase our funding at that rate, it would take us over 60 years even to reach the average funding for the West Midlands, let alone England as a whole.” 

Andrew added:

“Only last month we saw how the Government wanted to penalise well run schools in East Staffordshire by snatching back any reserves they may have saved.  However, the news that a typical primary school in East Staffordshire will receive at least £50,000 a year less than a similar school elsewhere in the Midlands is simply a scandal.  That is money that could have been spent on books and equipment to educate our young people.”